Contents

By Fiona Robertson

Resources for Internal Communication are usually limited, both in terms of manpower and budget and yet, all around your company, you have an untapped supply of the most powerful tool for moving the minds of your staff : Communication Champions.

By using a Champions programme, you will be able to multiply the efforts of your Communications team – ten, twenty, a hundred fold. And this resource is not only astoundingly effective, it’s also completely free.

In this chapter, we explain why a Champions Network is such an effective and valuable Communications resource and how to go about creating and managing your own team. Note that the techniques we feature here can also be applied to any form of champions programme, such as Change programmes or ‘living the brand’ initiatives.

Communication Champions : How they work and what they do

• The reason why Champions are able to magnify and accelerate your efforts is because they work on different levels, functions, sites and regions of your business, simultaneously and continually.

• Once a clear proposition or goal has been set for your Champions network, they can then set about disseminating this message throughout the organisation, swaying co-workers at a grass roots level and effecting a seemingly-organic sea change within the company.

• Communication Champions are most often used as communicators and agents for change.

• They are usually tasked with achieving the following :

  • To move your company to the Tipping Point of any given programme faster and more effectively, (see below for details);

  • To become your eyes and ears for internal research and measurement purposes;

  • To gather the stories from around your company that, collectively, create your organisation’s mythology, (eg examples of great customer service). See the article on the Power of Stories for information on why these are so influential.

The advantages

• The advantages for the Communications department, as well as for the company as a whole, are obvious :

  • dramatic and swift results

  • achieved with relative ease

  • all at no cost.

• The advantages for the Champions themselves are equally positive :

  • taking on this role gives them a sense of exclusivity

  • it makes their working week more varied

  • it builds their communication skills and advances their personal development

  • it gives them the opportunity to be noticed by senior management.

Potential stumbling blocks

• Note that resistance to a network of Communication Champions is likely to come from senior management, who may be reluctant to give away man-days from their departments – especially if you want to recruit their most effective staffers – so it’s vital that you obtain their endorsement.

• HR may also object if you fail to include them in your plans. Otherwise, they may perceive you (and your network) as a rogue elephant, trampling over their detailed development and succession planning.

• Read how to overcome resistance to any project and enlist the endorsement of even the most reactionary managers in the Power Versus Enthusiasm model.

Getting Senior Management’s Endorsement

• Find a sponsor within the senior management team, (preferably the MD).

• Get their approval to have meetings with all the senior influencers in the organisation.

• With each senior manager, use the Power Versus Enthusiasm model to prevent your work being stopped before it’s got off the ground : work out what their particular initiatives are, then sell the Champions network to them on the back of each of those projects.

• Talk down the amount of time for which you will need their staff, (eg less than one day per month, for six months).

• Point out the development opportunities this network will present to their staff as well as the benefits they will derive from more motivated and experienced employees.

• Agree the role of the Communication Champions, clearly setting out the objectives of the programme to be implemented.

• Get the CEO and other senior management (including HR) to commit to a session with the Champions, at which they will set out their proposals for change.

• Set benchmarks before and after the Champions programme, by which its progress can be measured (and its implementation justified). For example, the network’s impact on the bottom line; internal feedback on particular information, attitudes and behaviours; and external feedback on something appropriate that the Champions’ work will have affected.

Recruiting Champions

• Finding the right Champions to spread your message is critical to the success of any Champions programme so selection and recruitment is all-important.

• Your Champions’ attributes and personalities are key so focus on the criteria below, rather than trying to recruit a representative cross-section of your organisation.

• Remember : if you recruit a microcosm of the existing company, you will simply prolong the status quo.

• Effective Champions are :

  • Early Adopters

  • Good communicators

  • Respected by their peers

  • Already busy

  • Representative of the major divisions, regions and functions of your business

  • From all levels of the company, down to supervisor (but no lower).

• To find your Champions, advertise the programme and ask for volunteers; people who nominate themselves tend to have the profile you want.

• Having obtained a number of potential candidates, ask for recommendations from other sources, eg their line managers and HR.

• Unreasonable or difficult employees can make great Champions; often, they’re simply frustrated in their job so, with something to get their teeth into, they can turn their enthusiasm to your project.

• However, be wary of the candidate being foisted on you by a manager who is dissatisfied with their employee’s performance so wants to offload the departmental dead weight.

• Sell your candidates on the personal opportunities the position offers, the attention from senior management that they’re likely to receive, and the difference their contribution will make to the company.

• When you have a keen group ready to be groomed, select most of them; it will make the role of Communication Champion more desired and aspirational.

• Tell those who weren’t selected that the programme is full at the moment but that you’ll be reviewing the team in six months’ time and they are top of the list.

The Tipping Point

• For an idea, behaviour or programme to take root in your organisation, not only will you need to introduce it, you’ll then have to let it spread and take hold, like a virus, until a sufficient proportion of your employees are behind this new approach. Once this tipping point has been reached, the speed with which your idea spreads will accelerate exponentially.

• In any given community (or business), there will be a small number of Fanatics (maybe 2%), a greater number of Early Adopters, a majority of Fence-Sitters, and approximately 20% will be Reactionaries.

• The Fanatics are those people who continually come up with wild ideas though they tend not to see them through; their history is a series of aborted experiments so they get a reputation for not delivering.

• Early Adopters watch the Fanatics in case they hit on an idea that might just work. When they do, they have the ability to present it in more practical terms and drive it forward. Early Adopters are known for being open to and enthusiastic about new ideas; they have the respect of their peers and tend to be on the bandwagon before it starts to roll.

• The Fence-Sitters watch what the Early Adopters do but they don’t join in until a project has gathered momentum, credibility and approval from senior management; only then will they adopt the new approach.

• The Reactionaries are those who never change or embrace a new idea of their own volition. However, once an idea has gained significant moment, it reaches its tipping point and then becomes adopted throughout an organisation, forcing the Reactionaries to follow suit.

• Consequently, Early Adopters are pivotal in influencing the climate of an organisation and in driving change. The reason why they are such a powerful group is because they are comprised of three different personality types - what Malcolm Gladwell in his seminal book 'The Tipping Point' classes as Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen.

  • Connectors are socialites – rare people with unusually extensive and elaborate social networks of friends and acquaintances. They spend time maintaining their social connections and are the central point of any organisation’s network.

  • Mavens are the information gatherers of a social network; they evaluate the messages they receive and then pass these views on to others, together with the original communication. They give a critical appraisal of what’s going on, thus regulating the information being passed around a network : they have the power to control which ideas get transferred as well as how they are perceived.

  • Salesmen are persuaders – people who can propagate messages through force of character, and who can sell messages that are of importance to them. Their ability to persuade strangers to accept a message is why salesmen are important in tipping ideas to the point where they become adopted by the majority.

• As regards your communications programme, if you can get the support of an Early Adopter within your senior management team, so much the better!

Engaging Your Team

• The key here is not to frighten your Champions off before they’ve started : the principle is to give them a piece of silken thread which they can pull on. Tied to the thread is a piece of string, and tied to that is a length of rope. By the time they are pulling on the rope, they are fully committed.

• Outline the features and benefits of the role that your new Champions have taken on – namely, to be involved in something new, to be instrumental in making a difference, to learn new skills and to get noticed. Remember to make the project sound like fun, with little required in the way of time and effort.

• Organise a half-day meeting to bring all your Champions together and explain the issues that you want the network to address.

• Pack this first session with fun team-building games and give them some quick wins through developing skills they can use day-to-day (eg brainstorming techniques).

• Encourage their opinions, get your new team to identify potential obstacles and then ask them to devise solutions to these issues. You’ll find they gradually talk themselves into taking on the responsibility for implementing the actions they’ve outlined.

• Brainstorm all the ideas they’ve come up with until you have a plan that holds water; then arrange for the team to present this strategy to senior management.

• The more they give of themselves, the more committed they’ll become so soon you’ll find you have a solid network permeating your organisation.

Sustaining The Network

• Create an activity plan for your Champions for the next 6 months, setting out :

  • their objectives

  • the benchmarks by which to gauge their progress

  • a few quick wins

  • opportunities for fun

  • any rewards.

• Measure your Champions’ progress using employee surveys which focus on the workforce’s awareness of, or attitudes towards, elements of your communications programme, plotting shifts as they occur.

• Publicise the team’s work and achievements company-wide through emails, newsletters, intranets, etc.

• Make a formal presentation to senior management towards the end of each six month period, including internal and external feedback on the subject of the communications plan, comparing results from before and after. Note the financial impact the network is having on the business, and include comments received from around the organisation on the work done, the stories compiled, etc.

• Celebrate successes and, each 6 months, give nominal awards for the Champions’ achievements.

• At the end of each six-month term, replace at least one third of team to keep the Champions feeling sharp and to allow new blood (and perhaps new avenues of communication) into the mix.

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